Come next week, many of you will begin your adventures in Fallout: New Vegas – attempting to explore every nook, cranny, and Vault found within in and around Mojave Wasteland. Before your journey begins, we thought we’d answer some last-minute questions sent by you via Facebook and Twitter.

I’m afraid it’s going to feel like DLC. Are there enough changes to make New Vegas feel unique from Fallout 3? (thanks @acsguitar)

We certainly think so! While the gameplay is similar, the world itself is very, very different. And our main storyline plays out in a very different manner, with several very different paths to completion.

Can we expect the same wasteland experience as in Fallout 3? I’m kinda scared about playing in a city untouched by atomic bombs! (thanks @The_iCroco)

Yes and no. There are some areas that were hit directly, but for the most part, the destruction you’ll see in the Mojave Wasteland is due to neglect, not bombardment. Don’t expect sprawling, fully functioning cities, though. The New Vegas strip is self-contained and tightly managed directly by Mr. House, so everything in the city works perfectly. As you get farther away from the strip, you’ll see more and more ruins and abandoned buildings.Would love to know how they will create that WOW factor that Fallout 3 had: the wasteland, the bomb at Megaton and so on. Tricky!? (thanks @bekblayton)

We think there are some similarly cool WOW moments in our game, and you should find one in each act of the main storyline.

How difficult will it be to take care of physical needs like hydration, sleep, and so on? Is it going to be overbearing?

Those features are only in Hardcore Mode, so they’re optional. If you find they’re getting to be too much of a hassle, you can always turn it off (although you won’t get the Hardcore trophy if you do).

What can you tell us about the new Hardcore Mode?

Hardcore Mode can be turned on or off at any time, although if you want the Hardcore trophy, you have to turn it on when initially prompted and leave it that way all the way to the end of the game. When it’s on, players will have to eat, sleep, and drink water every day. In addition, ammo has weight, companions can die, Stimpaks heal over time, and damaged limbs can only be healed with a Doctor’s Bag.

While you can fast travel in Hardcore Mode, you can’t if the time it would take to get you there would result in the player dying from dehydration/exhaustion/starvation.

Will the shooting feel better than it did in Fallout 3? (thanks @DYLANmmc)

Obsidian has tweaked the real-time combat quite a bit from Fallout 3 to make it feel more natural for people who don’t want to use VATS all the time.

What’s the story with the Aim Down the Sight mechanic? And is Fallout: New Vegas still support first-person and third-person viewing modes?

First- and third-person modes are in, and we’ve tweaked the third-person camera to be a bit more useful. In first-person mode, iron sights can be used with most weapons. The only exceptions are ones like the Grenade Machine Gun that are enormous and fire from the hip, and guns that have an actual sight on them (like sniper rifles and weapons modded with a physical sight). You just hold down the button and the camera zooms to show the weapon’s iron sight instead of a crosshair. It’s very useful for combat outside of VATS mode.

How big is Fallout: New Vegas compared to Fallout 3? (thanks @maialideth)

It’s about the same size. If you thought Fallout 3 was big, you’ll find Fallout: New Vegas to be equally big.

How much install data will be needed for Fallout: New Vegas?

Fallout: New Vegas is a 5 GB install on PS3 that runs when you first launch the game.

One of my favorite things to do in Fallout 3 was scavenging homes and office buildings. Will we see many rural and urban areas for that? (thanks @JaylLaf)

Just like Fallout 3, our wasteland is littered with abandoned (and not-so-abandoned) locations for you to explore.

Yes there are! We have five different Vaults in the game. They serve as unique dungeons, and depending on what path you follow through the main storyline, you may have to venture into one of them to retrieve something.

I’m interested to know more about the music score that will be piped through our Pip Boys for New Vegas. Will there be more variety? (thanks @Peligrie)

We have three separate radio stations in Fallout: New Vegas. There’s New Vegas Radio, which has the kind of songs you’ve come to expect from a Fallout game – hosted by Mr. New Vegas (voiced by Wayne Newton). Then there’s Black Mountain Radio, which is more classic country-focused. And finally there’s Mojave Music Radio, which is similar to NVR, only without the news stories from Mr. New Vegas.

Of course that’s just the radio. If you never turn on the radio at all, you’ll be treated to a new score by Inon Zur, featuring a string quartet, samples from past Fallout games, and some very cool location-specific themes.

Will New Vegas have a Good/Evil/Neutral decision path like Fallout 3? (thanks @Reumaut)

Karma still exists, and affects some things, but for the most part our decisions are determined more by the new reputation system, which tracks how the various factions in the game feel about you.

Will the Brotherhood of Steel be present in Fallout: New Vegas? I know in Fallout 3, the “original” BoS was based near California. (thanks @SCZ_PS3)

The Brotherhood of Steel is in Fallout: New Vegas, but not nearly as much as they were in Fallout 3. The west coast BoS was really hit hard following the events of Fallout 1 & 2, so they’re not nearly as important as the NCR is in the region.

Will there be any Fallout 2 characters make an appearance in Fallout: New Vegas? (thanks @Vi9)

Yes! We’ve already confirmed Marcus from Fallout 2 is coming back, and will again be voiced by Michael Dorn. As for anyone else, you’ll just have to wait for the game to see for yourself.

Can I still force materials inside the pants of enemies? If so, what explosive additions have you made? (thanks @Foxification)

Yep, you can still pickpocket grenades into people’s pockets. Even better is that now you can pickpocket plastic explosives into people’s pants! For some fun, drop some C4 into a few random people, equip the detonator, stand back and pull the trigger. It never gets old.

Will there any kind of transportation?

Aside from fast-travel, we do have a monorail that will take you directly to the strip from Camp McCarran (assuming you’re friendly with the NCR).

Can we continue playing after the main quest line ends?

No. Instead, Fallout: New Vegas has a real ending, that shows the results of your actions throughout the game and how they affected the different factions, locations and people you encountered.

Are you still able to make a female character?

Absolutely!

Do you plan on including many DLC add-ons for Fallout: New Vegas, as Fallout 3 did? (thanks @VGNtertainment)

We’re not really going into specifics on DLC, but we have a plan, and we think it’s a good one. You should hear more about it soon.

What’s the initial level cap.. and will DLC be exclusive to one console or another for any amount of time? (thanks @keeponrunning)

The level cap for Fallout: New Vegas is 30. As mentioned previously, we’re not discussing the details of downloadable content right now. Stay tuned!

@4
Why would you need custom soundtracks, I believe that the game’s music itself emerses you into the gameplay. People work hard to compose music for games and If games didn’t have music, whats the point? It’s just like Final Fantasy series, if it didn’t have Nobou Uematsu’s music the series would probably fail. So, keep going with the great work you guys are doing excellent, I can’t see anything short from Perfect from this game.

Awesome Q&A!!! I’m glad there’s a “real” ending, but I also liked being able to go backand complete quests I missed. I guess I’ll just have to play this for a year straigh and rack up 300+ hours of play like on FO3. C’mon Midnight Monday!!!

im really worried about the ps3 version. please answer me (and a few other people) this. after playing for over 800+ hours over the span of 9 characters. will the ps3 version be able to handle that? or should i just dump 300 bucks on a POS xbox again? you guys realise that ps3 is a more powerful system right?? ok… i just wondered if you knew. then why shouldnt it be able to run fallout smoothly? im just sayin……

@Jason Bergman
Seriously WTF answer the tough question is the PS3 version of New Vegas going to be crap compared to the PC and 360 version? Stop answering the easy questions and do your freaking job and give us a straight answer. I got burned by fallout 3 and I’m sure as hell ain’t going to be burned again.

I loved Fallout 3, I explored the whole game-world and got a platinum trophy for it.

Q) I’m interested in playing the hardcore mode, but it will it be too laborius so that it kills the fun out of the game?

The Fallout 3 DLC has some attrocious bugs that make the game crash or stall for minutes on end (it’s only because I love it that I played through) the many bugs were unprofessional, but the lack of a patch is IS A STAIN ON BETHESDA’S RELATIONSHIP WITH PlayStation 3 USERS.
Q) Is there going to be proper QA for the PS3 version?

-Threat of lower quality version
-Threat of being buggy/glitchy
-Threat of (delayed/exclusive) DLC
-When the game ends, it ends
-5 GB Install (Sans any indicated advantage)
-No Custom Music

On the pro-side:
-Massive world
-Tons of skills
-Tons of quests
-Tons of side-quests/work/tasks/whatever
-Solid and addictive (theoretical) gameplay
-Refined/improved/added features from the last time around
-Inevitably better quality than PS3’s version of FO3

Kind of a wash: a great deal of risk AND reward. However, the risk seems to be all ours while the rewards are the same all around, and your silence on the issue doesn’t give a great deal of confidence. All things considered, I’d prefer to see a better-executed Elder Scrolls instead.

And for those wondering why they can’t answer your questions: duh. You’re just a name in a list of comments- what they say has actual consequences. They can’t just say whatever they want, no matter how badly they want to. Same story for Sony and anyone else posting on here.

Like alot of others, i am too worried about the PS3 version. A game as huge as Fallout 3 or NV usually doesn’t turn out well when its ported over. Then after the game was released, it seemed like they just stopped caring about the Playstation community by ignoring us.. i hope Obsidean/Bethesda doesn’t make that mistake twice, especially since i bought the $80 collectors edition.

I hope Bethesda starts working more on the ps3 versions and showing them off, so far everything ive heard about on Fallout NV was displayed on the Xbox… *sigh* oh well.

On another note, will we see/hear more radio stories like the “Adventures of Herbert Daring Hashwood”???

That was one of my favorite! bits on the radio in Fallout 3, it made me laugh so hard the first time hearing the part where Argyle takes down the guard at Paradise falls lmao.

I absolutly love all the fallout games (missed tactics). However I never played the Fallout 3 dlc because the price still hasn’t dropped over a year after release and $50 is alot for dlc. Is there any word on a price break for loyal ps3 owners? PS cant wait to see some old teammembers return to the wasteland congrats devs.

Seeing as I have both consoles, I jus might be making my switch to getin FO:NV for 360, because the glitchiness for FO3 on PS3 was nerve racking!! My question is; is the VATS system improved somehow or any additional features to it or is it the same concept?

Oh yea forgot a question….even though I highly doubt it will be answered but; will there EVER be any multiplayer support for this game in a possible future DLC? I kno you cannot talk about DLC right now but trust me, there are A LOT of players of this game that wish to have some kind of co-op missions or something related, I guarantee more people would buy this game.

Good to see developers stick to a release date and deliver on that promise. I will be getting this game ASAP, i love Fallout 3, hell it could have been called Fallout 3 part 2 and i would have bought it. I can’t wait to see everything this new game has to deliver. Looks fantastic :)

I know it’s not exactly the best defense, but I am not sure how many of you were aware that the 360 version also was full of bugs and freezes (some of them, oddly, were the same ones as on the PS3 version). It’s just that the PS3 version was publicized more at the time, as the gaming media was on a “PS3 sucks” kick.

As for this one, I am waiting to hear what’s going on DLC-wise. I learned my lesson with “Fallout 3″ and “Dragon Age” that if I just wait a year, I can pick up a GOTY edition with all the DLC in the game already. I really want this game, but if I can save myself $50 by waiting, I’ll do it.

While Bethesda does not care which version I buy(either way their getting my money), Sony on the other hand does. Seeing as this is their blog site, Bethesda’s silence on the questions of quality in relation to Fallout 3 and DLC deeply concerns me and has swayed me to switch my reservation to XBOX for piece of mind. This is probably the first multi-platform title I have ever done this for. I find it appalling the lack of response given. Sony, if you can’t get developers to answer questions about a mutli-platform game, or don’t wish to answer them yourself, don’t piss and moan when I buy the Xbox version.

why would they make it like in fallout 3 where u couldnt continue after u finished the game? that was the worst part! i finished the game just to realize that i would return to an autosave 4 hr after my last save stuck in a room where my only choices were to die or let someone else die. then a few months later i find to continue i had to buy a map pack, a good map pack, but a map pack i had to buy just to continue my save! hopefully, or they better, do something to prevent that from happening in fallout new vegas.

Wow. It’s shocking how many of you people don’t read the answers that they’ve already given. I see the same questions over and over again, when some have already been answered.

As for console exclusive DLC, I seriously doubt it. They’re not answering ANY questions about DLC right now. If it was going to be 360-exclusive, don’t you think Microsoft would’ve been bragging about it already? Think, for a second, people.

” Cause putting 60 hours into fallout 3 i would like to get something ” .

you already got something … a game .

@ clupula668 it’s not really all that shocking given the nature of statements above … theres alot of spoiled , self entitled , non reading brats here who think the world owes them something . you just have skm comment’s and avoid the garbage .

i did not get fall out 3 .i was thinking about getting the new one but reading all the post i see that they won’t answer the question about the glitches !! so i’m going to save my money for black oops ! november 2 !!!!!!!

it looks like you havent played fallout 3 on PS3 to know how horrible it was.

do yourself a favor and shut up. Me like many others on this blog are not going to buy a game that is glitchy, buggy, and a graphical mess, especially when devs are asking us to fork over $60 for this game.